Paul Kurtz was a founder and a leader, more so than anyone else I have ever known. Before there were the new atheists and their best-selling books, there was Paul Kurtz promoting humanism and skepticism through his many publications and institutions.

With a new survey from Pew showing that about one in five Americans are now religiously unaffiliated, it would be reasonable to ask what impact, if any, the rapidly growing secular movement will have on public policy.

While the public focus is on the changing religious identity of the average American, the takeaway for elected officials should be this: the religious unaffiliated are a growing segment of the electorate. Here are five reasons why politicians can no longer afford to ignore us.

How do we successfully organize around nonbelief?Finding a way to wield the power of growing numbers is the difference between being a part of a socially liberal coalition and being a leading political movement. What’s key in changing our potential into action is to convince nontheists to identify as nontheists, rather than social liberals who happen to be non-believers.

It can be difficult to find victories in the Secular Movement. From Florida’s proposed Amendment 8 to the Missouri legislature’s override of a gubernatorial veto of a bill that would prohibit women’s access to contraception on religious grounds, it can seem like losing is the name of the game.

Private schools have long had a place in educating America’s youth. Indeed, for many years there were only private schools. However, looking at the makeup of today’s “private schools”, Secular Americans have every right to be concerned about the final destination of taxpayers’ dollars.

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